The more we talk, the more the situations and violence, gang rule and drug issues will continue; talk is not action in the best sense of the word. Actual effort and getting to the job and doing the work is what matters once the talk is done. Talk up a storm; the gangs and criminals will keep working right on through those storms. Legislate, get together and “look into” the situations, send people out to “take a look at” the “neighborhoods” and then “make a report on their findings”. Keep right on doing the “studies”, and all you do is just as helpful as trying to find cures for cancer when the solution is to get rid of the chemicals that cause the diseases in the first place.

You can get rid of at least some of the guns and you can be rid of stock in gun makers and any support of gun manufacturers and those who put on the shows where background checks are not necessary. That means, as many officials have observed, that anyone can go to those shows and get any sort of gun they want.

Guns do not kill people; people kill people – that is the saying. It is true. But on to the rest of the topic………

Now the main issues is about “guns”… well, there are all kinds of what we can class as “firearms”. There is the .22, there is the Bushmaster, there is the cannon one of our neighbors used to fire off every July 4 from his front lawn. He would dress in period costume and shoot that cannon off right on schedule. Guns have been around for centuries, and they have basically one use and purpose. These weapons are, as any weapons are, meant to inflict harm, injury, damage and death, quickly and with pain. Death is never “instantaneous” and video games can in this respect be misleading to those who play them.

The idea that death comes to a human being as it does on a video game screen is ridiculous. Even using the most potent drugs, death comes in seconds or minutes, and the person so in harm and inflicted will feel something before the final moments arrive and vital functions cease. In the same idea, using a weapon loaded with dozens or hundreds of rounds is not going to bring death any faster; it will just make the plight of the dying more painful and just plain awful.

So we talk about the gun, and just think of how many varieties there are. As mentioned above there is the simple hand gun many people purchase for home or business defense, the service weapon law enforcement officials carry to their jobs every day as they defend our cities and borders, and the machine guns or “assault” weapons our miliary and SWAT teams use in their daily work. The latter have those high potency magazines these personnel need to discharge their jobs as they can be in hazardous territories where their opponents are armed with such things.

Lately in these gun turn -in events and gun buy -back events, someone turned in a missile launcher and at another event a rocket launcher. I wonder why someone would even want these anywhere near them or their families or neighbors, even as collectors items. I know people who have rid their homes of all weapons, no matter their value, and they feel better for being rid of these implements of destruction.

In an episode of EMERGENCY, a real nail -biter, the paramedics and fire department respond to a man injured when a weapon malfunctions and the round ends up inside of him. Dr. Brackett has to come out and perform emergency surgery on the man in the man’s own back yard as it is too dangerous for him to be moved. The bomb squad has to be called, and the responders note that the man has enough guns in his collection to start a war. Thus the man’s negligence ends up putting many more people in danger – the responders, his wife, his neighbors and friends. Now many people do not have collections that elaborate or potent, but I do know people who have home collections of firearms. I never felt safe around those homes; if people do not know how to properly maintain their weapons they either need to learn or get rid of them. The popular television show EMERGENCY! is about forty years old now but many of the episodes are relevant to issues going on today, and they are worth watching.

The NRA claims that the proposed bans on assault weapons will ruin our Second Amendment rights, but it will do no such thing at all. The ban is on one particular class of firearm, those meant to discharge dozens of rounds a second or a minute and inflict mass serious harm in schools, crowds, malls and the like. These guns end up in the wrong hand much of the time; I can see no need for such guns as a method of recreation.

There are better ways to have recreation, or if you would rather term it, RE -CREATION. Thinking of taking leisure in the view of the latter pronunciation might give you a different view of using high – powered machine -style guns at all, specially for hunting or for some other purpose of causing harm or pain on a living thing.

There is also the issue of mental illness and debating how it should be judged on that basis who should or should not have guns. Who has the right to judge in the first place, considering that everyone is to some degree mentally unstable. No one is what could be called “normal”, and at any rate who can judge or say what “normal” is. Everyone is so different, “diverse”, and individual that nothing is “normal”. There are those who are educated to discern “mental illness” and the degrees thereof, and volumes have been written on the varieties of mental disorders for centuries. We diagnose, treat, observe, maintain, and educate on mental disorders; but when it comes to referencing mental illness with the right to own a firearm, those who are legislating and asking for views from others must be careful. As far as we are able, we must be as a good judge should be: impartial, a good listener, not biased to one or another side or view or opinion, and patient enough to note the views of everyone who is participating in any organized debate on the issue.

The issues revolving (pardon the use of that word) around gun violence, gun control, law enforcement and FOIA cards and gun possession are complex, difficult, and hard to deal with. But deal with them we must as has been pointed out hundreds of times since the Sandy Hook massacre.

And now this week we hear of a bus driver in Alabama that was shot and killed by a man who then abducted a child from that bus. That idiot, that angry, that awful man terrorized others and refuses now to give up the child despite that he is sick and has called for his parents. I hope that the situation can be ended by non -violence but if it cannot then the assailant brought it down on himself; let us all hope the child will emerge safely from his prison and be happily reunited with his family.

Guns? Do we need them at all? Does anyone need them? To what degree do we need them around our homes and businesses?

Deep questions, and we must ask, ponder, think on and solve each one of them.

When you have an obsession with someone or something, it is basically an imbalance; one of thought, deed, word, action, influence, attentions on that object to the sacrifice of other and more important things, such as job tasks or house tasks.

When that happens it is time to get counseling, to talk with others, and the boss if you are fortunate to do so, if the obsessive object is where you work. Having a chat with people you trust can be as the opening of a book; once you are on the right page, that with the information you seek, you know it.

Today I went through exactly that process. The past couple of days, I sensed something was out of balance, something in physical exercise yes, something in the fleshly appetites, yes, but there were other things that muddled my brain processes, that addled and clouded my thoughts, that deeply upset my sleep, my views of work, of just about everything that I considered as vital and wonderful. In short there were signs of depression, of a mental recession of the caliber I have not been caught up in since I moved to Chicago. The first winter I was here and went through a bout of SAD, I had to battle my way through it pretty much solo, as at that time I knew very few people here who could be called upon for counseling or dealing with “the holidays” in a way that I figured would be satisfied.

I got through that few weeks by singing the hit tune “Route 66” until I was tired of it, but that did the job. I completed the seasonal job and went on to other things…and I am still in Chicago and enjoying all this great city has to offer. I am in a totally different environment now, a place I like, and I enjoy the people I work with.

The problem many people face when at the workplace is that they, well, like someone they work with a little too much, to the point of doubting, fears, worries, concerns and other mental issues that are so deep and heavy that they begin to do the worst possible thing. These ramblings of the mind and pullings at the heart start to interfere with workplace performance. In short they interfere with productivity. And if you are a worker committed to doing the best job you can, doing that which you are assigned and endeavoring to do whatever you can to make the business successful, that can be a real shocker when the truth comes out.

Obsessions are bad for workplace production, in short. You can get so hooked on a person or a task or an idea that you get on one track and lose sight of other things you can and indeed should be doing. Recently I was pretty nearly to being prodded into finding something to do because my mind stuck in a rut dealing with someone I like. Once I got to working at the different task I felt better and yes, I felt productive. There is something else, though, when one’s Christian principles are considered in such a light; obsessions are idolatrous and filled with vices and troubles, adversities and problems. Focusing too much on people or things is against what I learned as a good ideal for being a Christian.

In the Book of Judges, when the children of Israel made or followed or served images and false gods, nothing but trouble awaited them. Their rulers did evil in the sight of the LORD, they did not do right by God who had brought them out of so much trouble and fear, and they… well, they slacked on the job is what. Their work was to follow the word of the LORD, the tenets and principles given them decades and generations before when they were delivered with generous spoils from the slaving hands of the Egyptians. Those later generations did not follow rightly in the sight of the LORD, and they were called on the carpet for it. They were beset with war, death, pestilence, harshness, slavery and burned cities. They paid dearly for slacking on the job… for not serving properly the LORD who called to them, protected them and provided for them.

In this time when production is talked of as going down in some ways and going up in other ways, what turns out to be the most important way? Production of material goods happens all the time; production of a good character takes a lot longer than making a new car to sell. Building a good character takes years, decades, patience… practice constantly. It is not just going to worship and hearing a sermon and expecting to know everything and live by what the leader says straight out. You must think that being productive is what you are there at the workplace to do, or at anywhere that you have made a commitment to do something. The Israelites suffered because they slacked on the job; and I know what it means to suffer on account of slacking.

My good character principles went by the wayside because my energies were not properly focused. It is something, quite amazing really, what a poor or troubled conscience does to one’s entire being. When the causes are found out and all that ties in with those causes, be those things subtle or overt, it is then that solutions can be found – in this case to slacking on the job, or poor productivity. The obsession can be quelled, the concerns conquered, by looking at the field from fresh viewpoints.

You can always find something to do on the job. No place is too neat or organized or free of dust that something cannot be done to make it look even better. Small businesses are chock full of things to do to make the place better. Clean a window, rearrange a display case, do a window display, dust or mop or sweep. Check the mail, go pick up a shipment, or rework a clothes rack. Polish a mirror, straighten a crooked picture or call a customer to check on an order, whether or not they have received it or are satisfied with it. The fact is take after a good little phrase my grandmother uses when it seems nothing is around to do, and that is simply “do something, do something”! Or you can figure out just by looking around that, as my father says, “There is always room for improvement.”

If you are not sure that there is something you can do, ask your manager or boss if there is something they are thinking about and might need help with. There might be a task that someone else cannot do but that, after all, you can do. After all, brilliant diamonds do not mine themselves; they do not cut and polish themselves or set themselves in beautiful rings on their own. Someone has to take that diamond in the rough and turn it into something that will be wonderful and sparkling, will throw off spikes of color and brilliance and perhaps grace someone’s finger on a wedding day, or grace a gift for an anniversary. We are all of us diamonds in the rough… and we all need a little help getting trim and polished and set in the right place sometimes. There is no harm in asking for help – the stupid question is the one you do not ask. The right question is the one you do ask.